Fleece fabrics generally comprise a single jersey knit ground construction having a plurality of heavier unknitted inlaid yarns tucked into the ground yarns to extend along the courses alternately to appear in front and be tucked into wales of the ground yarns. Such fabrics are employed for various end uses, such as in wearing apparel, upholstery, and the like. The heavy inlaid fleece yarns of the fabrics generally appear predominantly on one face of the knit ground construction, provide dimensional stability, and give the fabric the appearance of heavier woven woolen cloths. In the past, such fabrics have been knitted on circular single knit jersey knitting machines employing a single set of needles with corresponding sinkers.
It is known to produce double knit fabrics having inlaid yarns on a double knit machine by direct inlay of the yarns between the cylinder and dial needles with resulting placement between the two faces of the fabric; however, such inlay yarns are not generally effectively locked into the knit construction and may be removed by pulling the inlaid yarn ends in course-wise direction. It is also known to produce a plush type fabric on a circular double knit machine by knitting both a ground yarn and a plush, or surface effect, yarn on one set of latch needles, while employing a special set of reverse hook spring needles to extend the length of the plush loops on one face of the fabric as they are knit into the ground construction. Such a double knit machine arrangement is described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,874,197. However, such fabrics having knitted-in plush yarns, or other yarns knitted or laid therein, are quite limited in their construction because of the size of yarns which can be effectively accommodated on the particular needle spacing or cut, i.e., needles per inch, which most double knit knitting machines possess. Double knit knitting machines employed to knit double knit fabrics generally utilize cuts ranging from 6 to 40 needles per inch, with 18 cut being the more prevalent double knit machine needle spacing. Thus, for a particular cut, or needle spacing, of a circular knit machine, the machine can accommodate yarns to be knitted on the needles only within a narrow range of sizes. If a large or heavy yarn is attempted to be employed in the knitting operation, many knitting problems arise. If the yarn is too thick for the needle spacing of the machine, it can put great strain on the knitting elements causing excessive wear or breakage of the needles, breakage of the yarn, and excessive wearing of the cams and yarns carriers, particularly when the needles handling the yarns are moved to welt, or fully retracted positions. Fabric quality is also effected when yarns too thick or too thin for the cut of the machine are employed, with resultant holes, drop stitches and end outs occurring in the fabric during the knitting operation.
To accommodate larger and heavier inlay yarns on a double knit machine, it has recently been proposed to knit double knit fabrics having heavy, contrasting pattern effect yarns inlaid and sandwiched between the front and back faces of the fabric by use of an attachment having a plurality of rotatable, radially extending blades which intermesh with the cylinder or dial needles of the machine to feed and locate an inlay yarn alternately in front of and behind the set of needles on which one face of the double knit fabric is knitted. The attachment is mounted on the cylinder or dial and is driven in rotation by a gear portion which is engaged by the shanks of the cylinder or dial needles, respectively, and special needle control cams are employed to tuck the heavier inlaid yarns into the knitted ground fabric. Such attachments and their manner of use in double knit machines are variously described in German Pat. Nos. 2,346,383 and 2,454,562, and U.S. Pat. No. 3,986,374. Although the rotating wheel attachment does permit introduction of heavy inlaid yarns into fabrics made on a double knit machine, the attachment is a relatively complicated device and the attachment and machine modifications incident to its use add considerable expense to the knitting operation.